While Rodgers never lost a desire to play the game, according to
Wilde, his passion for football has recently been reinvigorated,
and he now has "designs" to play into his 40s.

To do so, Rodgers is following the lead of one of his
contemporaries - Tom Brady. Brady, of course, has structured his
entire life to play football into his 40s, from his notoriously
stingy diet, sleeping habits, and stretching-specific workouts.
Rodgers has reportedly started following Brady's model.

In 2016, Rodgers cut dairy from his diet.
He told ESPN's Rob Demovsky in 2016 that he eats a vegan-like
diet but adds in doses of chicken and some red meats. He also
said he follows an "80/20" model - 80% of his meals are healthy
while he enjoys the other 20%.

Though his diet may not be as strict as Brady's,
he recently told People that he speaks to Brady often and
follows his model for "clean eating."

"I can't give up some of the nightshades, but I think Tom
sets a good example, and we have been friends for a while and
talk about a number of things. He has kind of set the standard
for taking care of your body."

As a result, Rodgers came into training camp below 220 lb
for the second year in a row.
He told Demovsky in April that he put a bigger emphasis on
offseason workouts and stopped playing as much golf in the
offseason.

Once again, Rodgers said it comes back to diet, recovery,
and sleep.

"There's always little tweaks, but the key for me is really that
diet and trying to continue to be smart about what I'm eating and
how it affects my performance even in the offseason," Rogers
said. "And then recovery is huge ... sleep's very important to my
routine as well."

There are other changes, too. Rodgers has always had a maniacal
intensity and robotic memory, but he has apparently become more
detail-ortiented. His favorite part of game preparation,
according to Wilde, has become studying opponents' schemes on
film and altering the routes with his receivers. Packers coach
Mike McCarthy also said that Rodgers has "taken it to another
level" this year when it comes to coaching and instructing
younger players.

Rodgers is even beginning to sound like Brady. He told Wilde:

"I think as you get older, and you see a lot of your friends move
on, retire, get cut, get injured and stop playing, you have that
point where you think about your own career and how long you can
go. And for me, I got even more motivated to be an irreplaceable
part of our team.

"In doing that, I also, I think, started to really have a greater
awareness of my surroundings and enjoy the little things more -
the preparation, the meetings, the practice. And when you're
loving those things, the game is really icing on the cake for
you."

"Other than playing football, the other thing I love to do is
prepare to play football. I've worked hard to get a system in
place that really works for me and I know could work for
everybody else if they just did it. That enables me to play 99
plays [in Super Bowl 51, the most of his career in one game] as a
39-year-old in the last game of the season … Football to me is
more than just a sport. It has become my life. Every choice that
I make … what I have for breakfast, how I work out, all of those
things. I love the game. I love playing."

From the sounds of it, Rodgers hasn't gotten quite as stringent
as Brady, but that may be down the line. Rodgers hasn't shown
signs of slowing down, but as he gets older, if he continues to
have a desire to play longer, he may turn to Brady levels of
dedication.

In the meantime, there's a scary scenario to imagine for the rest
of the NFL - two of the NFL's best quarterbacks getting more
focused, and perhaps better, as they age.